my weekends nowadays consist of running around doing errands related to baby. i've been clearing up our condo to make room for him. so that involves moving furniture around and planning for additional shelves, etc. i also have to look into the stuff we need to get in preparation for baby AND making a budget! on top of all these, i have our usual errands to run, eg, banks, grocery shopping (i have started cooking again!), etc.
the weekend before last, i saw an advertisement promoting strollers at 80% off. so off we trudged to the sale. before we went to this sale, i had already eyed a deal on a quinny zapp travel system (an infant car seat and a stroller). it was being offered at RM1,700. so when we were at the sale, i headed straight to this set to check it out. after going through my list of requirements, even though this set did not meet a few of my requirements, i was all set on it as we are only going to be using it in malls and hence it did not need to be extremely solid, etc. as we were making our way to the checkout counter, i spotted the quinny buzz travel system (this is obviously more stylo and more canggih). i was just looking (with no intentions of purchasing it at all) when b asked me to try it out. so i got the salesgirl to give us a demo. (point to note: the quinny buzz travel system satisfied everything on my list). the moment the salesgirl showed us the pneumatic system whereby the stroller frame pops up by itself, i knew b was a goner. you could literally see his face go "wow, that's so cool!". i was like "oh-oh, here we go.................."
so needless to say, we bought the quinny buzz travel system at RM3000!!!!!!! when we reached home, i asked b if he realised that we spent and additional RM1300 just because he wanted to look cool, his reply - "i'll start jogging with baby in the stroller and baby will not be allowed to walk around because he will be in his stroller all the time". ie, he's going to get his money's worth out of it. (personally, i doubt the jogging bit!)
as the stroller is the only "gadgetry, machinery" baby item, b has left all the other baby items up to me. he wants no part in it. sigh............men and their gadgets.

4d scans at 19 weeks:

e's pregnancy survivor kit or alternatively, why e's handbag is so huge and heavy:

• sick bags, ie the same ones you get on an airplane. i've come to realise that when i need to hurl, i need to hurl, now. there are no warning signs in advance.
• dettol wet wipes for those times when the public restrooms do not have soap or for when i'm to lazy to go to the loo to wash my hands before i eat in restaurants.
• tissues (i am known as the tissue lady)
• shawl. i know that pregnant women feel hot all the time but i swing from being hot and cold just as quickly.
• a bottle of water because pregnant women should drink lots of fluids.
• mints for fresh breath after hurling.
• a pouch filled with snacks for those in between meal times when i get hungry. i have mini boxes of raisins and travel packed crackers.
• an extra bag for times when i decide to buy something because i "say no to plastic bags!"
• a notebook and a pen to jot notes down because i have a tendency to forget things (aka pregnancy brain)

to quote vicki iovine, this is something i will share with only you, my girlfriends:

i am a giant peach now because i am covered all over with peach fuzz! sigh.........i'm not saying that i'm hairier than usual (like i need to be) BUT the hairs all over my body and face are certainly making themselves known! (and if i don't mention this here, nobody will notice. you have to pay close attention to be able to tell) because i'm fair, they are certainly more prominent now. it seems as if they've grown darker and longer. so there you go, my dark little secret.

to g:

i don't mind hand-me-down bajus!!!!!!!! will save us a bunch of moo-lah. besides, all your nephews are dressed extremely well....... ; )
i am due on 21st august. but i would prefer to see it as a due month instead of that particular day as we all know that he can either be early or late!

love,
e

oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY;

oh JOY, oh JOY, oh JOY, oh JOY, oh JOY, oh JOY,oh JOY, oh JOY!

; )

guess i won't be getting anything from g & m!

below are ultrasounds from my last appointment. these are much clearer as they are in soft copy. i was 15 weeks then. from my previous appointment to this last appointment, i gained 2 kg (which was in a month's time frame)

baby in the upright position this time.

baby's mouth is open. it's almost as if baby's smiling / laughing.

this is taken from the bottom up. you can clearly see baby's hand with all five fingers!

below are pictures of my previous ultrasounds. the pictures are not very good as they are scanned copies. (yes, it has taken me this long to get round to doing this)

at seven weeks.

at eleven weeks. the left bulge is baby's head and baby's flopped/curled over (ie baby's terbalik). baby was so active and moving so much during this scan that it was hard to even get a picture.

.

*a note on my previous blog: you are not supposed to lie flat on your back because this causes less oxygen to flow to your baby. it deprives your baby of oxygen.

from 15 weeks onwards, you should never ever sleep flat on your back. now, if you are like me (i sleep completely flat on my back, spread-eagled) this is absolute torture. i toss and turn from one side to the other trying to get a comfortable spot for like 15 minutes until the sheer exhaustion knocks me out. then i wake throughout the night to turn over to the other side because my neck and shoulder gets so stiff! as recommended, i sleep with a bolster/body pillow wedged underneath my right side, if i am sleeping on my left, and vice-versa. this is to avoid me accidentally turning over and sleeping flat on my back. sigh.........it's already a torture now. i wonder what will happen when my tummy gets bigger..............

i guess this is a form of training for the days and years to come. mothers never ever get enough sleep!

i've been reading this book called "the girlfriends guide to pregnancy" by vicki iovine. it is an absolute matter-of-fact, non-medical and humorous take on pregnancy. i simply love, love, love it. to quote her:

"the experience of pregnancy is so much more than medical; it is emotional, physical, and social, and i never found a book, in seven years of searching, that addressed those aspects of those experience in the way a good, experienced, and, most important, candid girlfriend could"

"we have all heard of women who do pregnancy perfectly. you know the type: a model or actress who is reverently portrayed in women's magazines with bouncing hair and hip outfits with accessories that match. or worse, she is the daughter of your mother's best friend. so you have to hear about and be compared with her every single day"

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"this book is NOT for these women. it is for the rest of us; those of us who put on twenty pounds between the home pregnancy test and the first doctor's visit. it is for those of us who get our first case of acne since the homecoming dance. it is for those of us who have hemorrhoids so bad that we have considered never eating solid food again, in hopes of avoiding another bowel movement for the rest of our lives. it is for those of us who have considered murdering our partners in their sleep because we thought we heard them say "moo" when we were getting dressed. it is for those of us who can no longer watch a pampers commercial without being moved to tears, and who feel it is our responsibility to memorize the faces of children on america's most wanted so that we can reunite them with their bereft parents"

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this book is so funny that i find myself laughing out loud whilst reading it. and i have to admit some things are so true and so private that ONLY a girlfriend would bring it up into the open. i'd strongly recommend this book to anyone who's pregnant AND who's not interested in doing pregnancy perfectly (it's for mere mortals like you and me!)